Learning Agreement

For the Extended Major Project, I will be creating a 2D side-scrolling platform game inspired by the Japanese tradition of Hanami. Around the end of March every year year, it is customary for the Japanese to spend time outside enjoying Sakura or Cherry Blossoms, which bloom and fall within the space of one or two weeks. This period is a social time, where people gather to celebrate in parks and along streets where the cherry blossoms bloom. However, I was inspired by the return to normality which must occur at the end of these celebrations. Does the world feel calm again once the festivities end? Is there a sense of emptiness or loneliness when people return indoors, and the blossoms fall from the trees?

My game will be set in a Japanese themed world, just after a Hanami style celebration. The outside world will be vacant of people, but full of drifting blossoms. The object of the game will be to collect blossoms in order to progress through a series of levels. Levels will be unlocked when the player collects a certain amount of blossoms, and progression will be achieved by finding the pathway. Each level will have its own unique theme and colour-scheme, based around typical Japanese artefacts.

2D platform games prove ever popular with players of all ages. Recent releases such as Limbo, Super Meat Boy and Rayman Origins have all received critical acclaim while portraying the genre uniquely in each case. While each game adheres to the characteristics which result in this genre classification, differences in objectives, physics and visuals set each game apart. I also aim to produce a unique game in this way, with its own game rules and visual style.

The objective of this project is to provide a contemporary game based on more traditional methods of development. Backgrounds will be constructed from tile-sets, which were traditional used when technology was not advanced enough to handle large objects. 2D sprites will be used for characters and game objects, and frame-based animation will be used to make characters and objects move. I will be using a “pixel-art” graphical style for game elements and interfaces, inspired by traditional 8-bit styles. I will be looking to implement typical gameplay characteristics and functions specific to the “platformer” genre. The emphasis of this project will be on “play” and “player experience”, rather than in-depth narratives and complicated dialogue. While visuals are important in communicating the type of game being presented to the player, my main aim is to create an enjoyable game based on the way it is played.

I will produce all concept art for the game, which will mainly be based on hand-drawn sketches and digital paintings. The final game imagery will be created in pixel-art creation software Graphics Gale and Adobe Photoshop. My visual research will focus on found images of Japan, as well as common tile-sets and pixel-art techniques.

The game’s soundtrack and all sound effects will be provided by a separate individual or acquired from the internet. I will be using sites like freesound.org for royalty-free sound effects for the game.

All game elements will be brought together using Game Maker to create an executable for Windows. Within the software, I will be using Matt Thorson’s Grandma Engine, a physics template which has been designed for the development of 2D platformers. I will code all other aspects of the game using Game Maker’s GML (Game Maker Language).

Synopsis of Study- What I’m Doing And Why I’m Doing It

My learning agreement is nearly complete! The main bulk of the learning agreement consists of the Synopsis of Study, which briefly outlines what I’m doing in as much detail as you can fit into a brief statement. It’s helped me clarify some things which have either gone unmentioned or were simply missing- so here’s an informal breakdown.

Character Sprite concept & inspiration from Adventure Time with Finn & Jake: Memory of a Memory. It's nearly relevant.

What I’m doing
The plan is to create a contemporary 2D side-scrolling platform game. This is a very traditional genre, born from the limitations of early game design. My aim is to use the typical characteristics of this style of game to create something new and fun to old-school players who are familiar with the genre. The object of the game is to collect items and progress through levels, which is pretty much the objective of any 2D platformer if you think about it! Platformers usually follow a simple narrative which explains why the character is running from left to right picking up , and my plot is about revolves around the Japanese tradition of Hanami (for me details see the rest of the Blog).

Mario runs from left to right to collect coins and progresses through levels to find the Princess.

Why I’m doing it
The popularity of 2D platformers has wavered throughout the past couple of decades, but with the strong emergence of Indie game developers since about 2008 they’ve risen to popularity again. From a design perspective, it’s an incredibly easy genre to develop, which is probably why small teams of Indie devs picked it up again. There is now potential to incorporate stunning high-resolution graphics into these games, however the retro “pixel-art” style remains ever popular amongst developers and players. I too intend to use implement a retro graphical style into my game, because it’s such an important factor in the history of computer technologies. If you were to ask what made Super Mario Bros so good?” part of the reason would be that its low-res 2D graphics had a sort of “mysterious digital-world magic” to them. 2D platform games and pixel art are almost synonymous with retro. Mario’s original silhouette is still universally recognised by gamers.

You know who it is.

How I’m doing it
I’m going to draw all game assets myself, using a combination of Photoshop and pixel-art drawing program Graphics Gale. The game will be made in Yoyo Game’s Game Maker 8.1, which is almost the perfect tool for creating 2D games of any genre.
John Sandoval:

Game Maker can do anything.
It’s magic.

(from somewhere on The Archer Devlog!)

For a better insight into the game-making possibilities of Game Maker, see this post from a previous Blog. I initially chose to use Game Maker because it was free and very easy to pick-up. In the creation of games, I’m an asset artist before a coder, so it was important for me to use an engine which didn’t require years of programming knowledge to be able to use well. Since I wrote the post on my old Blog, I’ve bought the standard version of Game Maker, which has opened up even more possibilities.
During this project, to help me focus on asset creation rather than using up valuable time on coding, I’m going to use Matt Thorson’s Grandma Engine, which runs in GM and acts as an easily adaptable platformer basis.

To clarify, I’ve prepared a list of things the Grandma Engine does not have in common with the stereotypical grandma:
Old
Slow

To highlight the positive features of the engine, I also found it necessary to provide a list of the things the Grandma Engine does have in common with the stereotypical grandma:
Gives you candy

Other features of the Grandma Engine include a custom movement system (meaning it does not use the built-in Game Maker movement system), slopes, jump-through platforms, and an An Untitled Story-style room system.

The image shows the building blocks of the engine, which make up the solid platforms in a platform game! When the game is complete, these black blocks will be invisible to the player, replaced by more aesthetic visuals.
As for sounds, I will be looking to sites like freesound.org for sound effects. For background music, I’m going to keep an eye open for any willing composers, if not I will probably use a few royalty-free tracks.

And What Makes A Game “Good”?

Ultimately: It’s a matter of opinion.
I don’t think there’s any arguing this point. It’s also important to point out that a good game isn’t necessarily a successful game, and vice versa.

However, German board Game designer Wolfgang Kramer points out these criteria which must be considered when designing a game:

Originality

A new must be new, although this can simply be a new arrangement of old characteristics.

Freshness and replayability

“The more a game makes its players want to play again, the better the game.” The same game played twice should never be the same.

Surprise

Repetition in gaming results in a bored player.

Equal Opportunity

There should be an equal chance of winning or losing, and in the case of multiplayer games, each player should have equal chances.

No “Kingmaker” Effect

There should be no way for any player to determine the winner before the end of the game! (Obviously, this article was originally written in relation to board games, but can be applied to electronic gaming. This seems far less likely in single player digital games, but still applies.)

No early elimination

Every player should be involved in the game until it is nearly over.

Reasonable Waiting Times

“Nothing kills players’ interest as easily as long periods of inactivity while they wait”.

Creative Control

The player must have a certain amount of control over the progression of the game. This is related to the choices the play makes.

Uniformity

“The title, theme, format, and graphics of a game must give a unified impression.” This is think is vital.

Quality of Components

The value of a game is judged on its visual and functional quality.

Target Groups and the Consistency of Rules
Certain types of players expect certain things from the games they play, so if a goal is supposed to be reached through strategy, the player cannot arrive at that goal by luck.

Tension

The amount of tension should vary.

Learning and Mastering A Game

“It is an advantage for a game to start quickly and be easy to learn, and the clearer and simpler the rules, the better.”

Complexity and Influence

A short game should be simple and employ a short list of rules, whereas larger games are allowed to be more complex.

A good game will stay with us all our lives.
A good game makes us long to play it again.

From What Makes A Game Good? on thegamesjournal.com

So What Makes A Game?

What I’ve referred to as “week one” on this project was in actuality only two days and weekend, so this is still only really the first week of development. For simplicity’s sake I’m not going to start adjusting my weeks so that they begin on Thursdays as I don’t really think that’s going to help anyone. The little weekly headers are in correlation to the time-plan I’ve set myself in my Learning Agreement, which is something I’m hoping to have finished by the end of the week. Once we are all agreed, I can properly delve in.

So, I’m really still revolving my thoughts around last weeks goals, which were to research and refine ideas. I’ve already thrown out a few ideas about subject matter, but before I properly convert my theme into a game I want to make sure I’ve got a few questions answered about what a good game actually is. Unfortunately, no matter how deeply I look into this, there is no definite, resounding answer.

I’ve been especially enjoying this book Rules of Play recently. The book is designed to provide developers with an insight into the theory behind development choices and processes, without suggesting any sort of development framework to follow. The book begins by attempting to define the general term “game” by combining definitions provided by a selection of theorists. To reference a few…

Reduced to its formal essence, a game is an activity among two or more independent decision-makers seeking to achieve their objectives in some limiting context. A more conventional definition would say that a game is a context with rules among adversaries trying to win objectives.

~Clark C Abt

A game is a form of art in which participants, termed players, make decisions in order to manage resources through game tokens in the pursuit of a goal.

~Greg Costikyan

Games are an exercise of voluntary control systems, in which there is a context between powers, confined by rules in order to produce a disequilibrial outcome.

~Elliot Avedon & Brian Sutton Smith

The consensus is:

A game is a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome.

Simply put, a game is something which must be “played” in order to achieve the objective. The emphasis of the book is obviously on the rules which exist in games, that the developer and the player must follow. As human beings, we understand the things which happen to us in our daily lives because of the natural and unquestionable rules which surround us. If a game does not follow rules, or consistently breaks its own rules without reason, it will not feel natural to play. From a developer’s perspective, making a “good game” is to create a sound system and a consistent set of rules, preferably ones which aren’t in conflict with the desires of the player.

In the online extra for Indie Game The Movie which I posted about a couple of days ago, Super Meat Boy was complimented for its natural playability. The objective of the game is simply to get from starting point A to finishing point B without getting killed by the severe obstacles which lie in your path. Ultimately, a simple goal.

System
A group of interacting, interrelated, or independent elements forming a complex whole.
Here, the system is the strange setting and world of Super Meat Boy, including its inhabitants. The way it looks and the way all the elements interact with each other create the “system”.
Player
The player is introduced to the system by being allowed to move within it, and interact with it. The player is represented by the main character Meat Boy.
Artificial
The game world in this case only exists within an artificial space, and has no correlation to reality. The player can expect the unexpected.
Conflict
The underlying conflict of Super Meat Boy is between the playable character and nemesis Dr Fetus over possession of female character Bandage Girl. I did mention this is a very strange game. It’s the typical “girl gets captured, girl must be rescued” scenario.
Rules
The rules are touched on briefly by the developers, who discuss the aspect of wall-jumping. The unique game physics are part of the rules which all game elements must adhere to, as well as the outcomes of various actions etc. Every action has a specific reaction.
Quantifiable Outcome
To put it simply, either the player wins or loses. Meat Boy may die on his quest, or he may reach his goal in every level and eventual re-acquire his kidnapped girlfriend.

Super Meat Boy is incredibly challenging to play, but consistency within the game allows the player to really get to grips with the gameplay mechanics and methods of play. By mastering control of the game, the player will eventually recognise its systems and rules in order to advance.